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Rent Epic Movie on Prime Video, or buy it on Prime Video.

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A crude comedy with nothing new or insightful to say about the subjects it satirizes.

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Jason Friedberg

Aaron Seltzer

Adam Campbell

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Movie Review: “Epic”

Derivative as all get out and concocted by a committee, “Epic” is a children’s animated film that is more entertaining and emotional than it has any right to be. Characters make sacrifices and die, miss their parents and mourn. And we’re touched. At least a little. Hard (if over-familiar)lessons are learned and laughs land on queue. Throw in some truly gorgeous animation and Blue Sky, the studio that made it, delivers more proof that it’s moved on from the junky cash-machine “Ice Age” movies, even if this one doesn’t rise to the charms and wit of “Rio.” Taking characters from William Joyce children’s novel about “Leaf Men” and “Brave Good Bugs,” a team of writers has borrowed from “Antz” and “A Bug’s Life,” and even “Spiderwicke Chronicles” for a story about the fairy forces of life in a forest, the Leaf Men (and women) and their allies, in battle with the rotting reptilian bog-dwelling forces of decay. A dotty scientist has surveillance cameras covering the forest where this struggle is going on and suspects there are little people out there, riding into battle on hummingbirds and crows, armored and armed with bows and arrows. “Just because you haven’t seen something doesn’t mean it’s not there.” But it’s his daughter, MK (Amanda Seyfried) who finds the proof. That happens when she’s magically shrunk by the Queen (Beyonce Knowles) and tasked with ensuring that this one lily pod blooms and renews life by the light of the full moon. MK struggles to survive this brave (tiny) new world where warriors like the rebellious Nod (Josh Hutcherson) and mission-focused Ronin (Colin Farrell) must fend off the reptilian designs of Mandrake (Christoph Waltz), who is determined to upset the balance between new life and decay and thus take over the forest. “You can’t stop the rot!” MK is assisted in her quest by a very funny snail and slug (Chris O’Dowd, Aziz Ansari), who know how to keep the pod alive until it blooms. And they are guided by the daffy six-legged Nim (Steven Tyler), the “scroll-keeper” who sings and studies records from the past to figure out how to carry out the pod-blooming ritual. The film’s 3D makes excellent use of depth of field, delivering eye-popping next generation animation that, among other things, gives the forest and its creatures wonderful shadings and detail, and makes the cartoon humans even more lifelike. But that’s the sort of thing you mention when the story is kind of all over the place, a real patchwork of ideas and inventions borrowed elsewhere. “Epic” isn’t epic, but it isn’t half bad, either. It’s just that as high as the bar has been raised on this sort of animation, this is more evidence that a strong story is worth more than any next generation software.

LINK: Josh Hutcherson on why he wanted to do this film.

LINK: Director Chris Wedge talks abou t the difficult birth of “Epic.”

MPAA Rating: PG for mild action, some scary images and brief rude language Cast: The voices of Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, Colin Farrell, Beyonce Knowles, Christoph Walz, Aziz Ansari Credits: Directed by Chris Wedge,  written by Tom J. Astle, Matt Ember, James V. Hart, Daniel Shere and William Joyce (based on characters from his book, “The Leaf Men and the Brave, Good Bugs”) . A Blue Sky/Fox release. Running time: 1:42

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In Theaters

• Kal Penn as Edward; Adam Campbell as Peter; Jennifer Coolidge as The White B--ch; Jayma Mays as Lucy; Faune Chambers as Susan; Crispin Glover as Willy; Hector Jimenez as Mr. Tumnus; Fred Willard as Aslo

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Movie Review

From the screenwriters responsible for Date Movie and two of the Scary Movie entries comes Epic Movie —a pith-free parody that manages to cram in spoofs of just about every big-budget “epic” in the last several years.

Opening scenes introduce us to four orphans—Lucy, Edward, Susan and Peter—who’re young-adult versions of the children in C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe . Lucy is fleeing a crazed albino monk in the Louvre (The Da Vinci Code) . Edward has been raised in a Mexican monastery headed by a wrestling monk (Nacho Libre) . Susan is flying to Namibia to meet her new adoptive parents (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) when the plane is overrun by slithering serpents (Snakes on a Plane) . Peter attends a school for mutants (X-Men) , where he’s been developing his superpower (sprouting chicken wings and squawking).

The orphans’ individual stories intersect when each discovers a golden ticket promising an epic adventure to be delivered by Willy, a mash-up of Wonka (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and Jigsaw (Saw) .

The remainder of the story takes place in Narnia, er, Gnarnia, as it’s renamed (“for legal reasons,” we’re told). Even as Edward finds himself spellbound by the carnal, voluptuous charms of the so-called White B–ch, the other “children” meet Mr. Tumnus and Harry Beaver (who live in a domestic partnership) and Aslo, a randy king who’s mostly interested in sleeping with his subjects.

Scores of other films and celebs, from Harry Potter to Monty Python and from Lindsay Lohan to Mel Gibson, all take their lumps, too, before Epic Movie mercifully lurches to its conclusion.

Positive Elements

A fearful Peter eventually turns from his cowardly ways in order to fight for Gnarnia. Mr. Tumnus is (briefly) willing to face an enemy to help the orphans escape (before changing his mind). The four orphans eventually learn that they’re actually quadruplet twins (which is played off humorously since the quartet represents three different races), and affirm that family is what matters most to them.

Spiritual Elements

Epic Movie cribs huge sections from Narnia , but (fortunately, for the most part) that original story’s subtle spiritual symbolism is nowhere to be found in this bludgeoning. Unfortunately , Aslo thoroughly degrades Lewis’ Aslan, the lion who represents Christ. Da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper includes each of the four orphans.

Sexual Content

An Epic amount of sexual content saturates this Movie . Aslo is shown in bed with a woman. Then he tells the orphans he’ll only rescue Edward if they do something for him. The next scene they’re all in bed with him under the covers (bare shoulders visible). Thus, it’s strongly implied that all three (Lucy, Susan and Peter) have sex with Aslo.

Mr. Tumnus and Harry Beaver carry on a homosexual relationship, and two scenes show them kissing. Mr. Tumnus tells Lucy he’s half man, half goat, then shows Lucy a picture of his parents: a man and a goat. Similarly, Aslo says that he was the product of the famous Las Vegas performer Siegfried Fischbacher and one of his cats.

Visually, half-a-dozen scenes show women in bikinis; in several, they’re dancing provocatively. The camera also focuses on the White B–ch’s cleavage. To convince Edward to do her bidding, she flashes her breasts. (We see her from behind.) For a moment it’s implied that a woman is performing oral sex. Two scenes picture the shape-shifting mutant Mystique (who wears only blue paint and is played by Carmen Electra) writhing suggestively. Mystique later seduces Peter, promising she can shape-shift into anything he wants. (He asks for certain body parts to be enlarged; we see them in bed.) Several scenes show men in thongs (including one Borat imitator who turns around to “face” the camera).

An older version of Harry Potter’s friend Hermione is depicted as a pregnant, smoking Britney Spears who advises Lucy and Susan, “I hope you chicks are on the pill.” She also comments about her sex life with the wizard. Potter himself grabs Susan’s breasts.

Etcetera. (And the only thing that prevents me from adding ad infinitum is the fact that the film does eventually end.)

Violent Content

Slaps. Hits. Kicks. Falls. Most of the violence in Epic Movie —and there’s actually quite a lot of it—resides in the slapstick realm. Some of it is non-lethal, and is played for laughs (such items as bottles and chairs are broken over people; unfortunates are kicked repeatedly in the groin).

Amping it up a bit, some of these poor excuses for characters get hurled through glass. Da Vinci ‘s self-flagellating albino monk Silas flogs himself repeatedly (though without the graphic depiction of that film). The Snakes scene predictably finds serpents attached to a man’s nose, a frantic woman’s breasts and a man’s crotch. A number of bad guys are dispatched bloodlessly by swords, arrows and knives—or by Lucy’s magic wand, which simply vaporizes enemies.

On a darker note, Willy looks, acts, dances and sings like his normal chocolate-obsessed self—except for the fact that his candy is composed of body parts from kidnapped orphans.Scenes suggest that he’s castrated Edward, pulled a tooth from Peter, ripped out Lucy’s heart (from under a sheet) and decapitated Susan (after which her comically distorted head is encased in candy and packaged in a “Sour Yellow Head” box).

The orphans get branded with a “W” on their backsides, just as happens in Jacka–: Number Two . (We briefly see one guy’s wound.) Lucy runs into a sheet of cellophane and almost suffocates. Mr. Tumnus tears Lucy’s tongue away from a frozen street sign. (Her still-wiggling taster remains attached to the post.) Silas shoots Mr. Tumnus 10 times with a pistol. And Aslo breaks Silas’ neck. Three of the four orphans are killed in battle (multiple arrows stick out of Susan) before Peter finds a way to bring them back to life.

Crude or Profane Language

The f-word is uttered once, and characters take God’s or Jesus’ names in vain a dozen-plus times. The s-word also pops up a dozen times. “B–ch” is used most frequently (about 25 times), usually referring to the film’s villain. British vulgarities “bloody” and “b-gger” are used once or twice each. Crude slang is used to reference sexual anatomy. A scene with “Mel Gibson” finds him drunkenly reiterating a foul phrase he used when arrested by a female police officer. A song near the end of the credits, Lil Jon’s “Bounce Dat Azz,” includes perhaps another 20 or so usages of the word “a–.”

Silas routinely speaks real Latin words that get mistranslated onscreen as rank phrases. (“Et tu, Brute,” for example, becomes, “I’m Rick James, b–ch.”)

Drug and Alcohol Content

Mr. Tumnus gives Lucy an MTV Cribs -style tour of his home, which includes shots of many bottles of Cristal (a champagne favorite of hip-hop artists) in his refrigerator. Instead of Turkish delight, the White B–ch gives Edward a “40” of malt liquor. At a party the night before the final battle, Edward and Lucy get drunk from a bong, then convince Susan to do the same. A long scene shows her drinking from a bong, then projectile vomiting. Jack (of Pirates of the Caribbean fame) drinks continually, and bottles of rum are never far from him.

Other Negative Elements

It wouldn’t be a spoof movie if it didn’t have scatological gags, would it? Two scenes involve characters urinating in the snow. Another urine-oriented scene revolves around a TV Mr. Tumnus has mounted in his toilet. Sagging pants reveal the top of one character’s backside.

A cameo by a Kanye West impersonator takes swipes at President George W. Bush by complaining about wire taps, no gay marriage and no hurricane relief for black people. Edward has a giant tattoo of rapper 50 Cent on his back. The man who’s murdered in the Louve has a “Thug Life” tattoo on his stomach (just like Tupac Shakur).

There are times I’m sure many Christians wish C.S. Lewis was still around to comment on what he might observe in our deteriorating culture. After seeing Epic Movie , however, I’m glad he’s not here to witness how his beloved Narnia has been so sadly—and needlessly—perverted. Mr. Tumnus and Harry Beaver exchanging kisses is just the beginning of what this foul parody deems funny. Equally offensive is the idea of Aslo blackmailing and bedding three of the orphans. Suffice it to say that after the lion-man (as he’s depicted) is killed, we’re not a bit sorry when he’s not resurrected. And those are just a few of the base moments in a film that felt much, much longer than its 86-minute running length.

I’m sure the film’s creators will dismiss inevitable criticism—from those who care about Lewis’ story in particular—claiming it comes from stuck-in-the-muds who just don’t have a sense of humor. But the funny thing about Epic Movie is that it’s neither epic nor funny. It feels twisted for the sake of being twisted. It shocks for the sake of shock. It’s like a clueless adolescent who tells a dirty joke over and over again, not realizing (or not caring) that it was never funny in the first place.

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

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Epic Movie Review

There’s nothing terribly epic about Epic , which feels more familiar than momentous. It echoes forest-battle tropes from FernGully and Avatar and boasts a visual palette reminiscent of A Bug’s Life . But what it lacks in uniqueness it makes up for with its simple enjoyment factor.

In the animated adventure, Beyoncé voices (almost too recognizably) Queen Tara, a powerful nature goddess who enlists a magically shrunken-down teen named M.K. (Amanda Seyfried), a slug-snail wise-guy duo (Aziz Ansari and Chris O’Dowd), and a battalion of hummingbird-riding tiny men to defeat the evil forces that threaten to destroy their verdant world. It’s actually refreshing that this movie about saving a forest doesn’t have an explicitly environmentalist lesson.

The bad guys here, led by Mandrake (Christoph Waltz), aren’t greedy humans but a swarm of ugly flying insects with the ability to cause decay but with only vague motivations for destruction. The point is to ooh and ah at the airborne chase scenes and laugh at the funny fat slug.

Epic isn’t quite destined for the ?Again, again!? re-watchability of some of the Pixar classics, but for a satisfying explosion of color on a lazy summer day, it does the trick. B+

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clock This article was published more than  10 years ago

‘Epic’ movie review

In calling itself " Epic ," the new CGI adventure based on children's author and illustrator William Joyce's " The Leaf Men " might be guilty of overselling itself, just a bit. Yes, the movie is certainly more swollen in scope and tone than Joyce's eco-themed picture book on which it's (very loosely) based. That 2001 story of the secret, teeming life of a garden had a charm similar to the author's earlier " George Shrinks ," in that both books derived much of their enchantment from imagining what the world looks like if you're only an inch tall.

Yet this film, on which Joyce worked as producer, writer and production designer, retains enough of the magic of the original to make it enormously visually appealing, even if the story itself is almost unrecognizably bloated.

As in the book, the Leafmen are a race of bug-size soldiers who maintain the order and balance of the natural world. Riding saddled hummingbirds, they keep the forces of decay and rot — embodied by creatures known as the Boggans — at bay. But when Mandrake (voice of Christoph Waltz), the evil leader of the Boggans, attacks the Leafmen’s queen (BeyoncéKnowles) and steals the magical flower bud containing the soul of her replacement, the Leafmen must fight to get it back before its power is perverted into poisoning all life.

Aiding the Leafmen in their mission is Mary Katherine (Amanda Seyfried), a human teenager who has accidentally been shrunken down to their size. The requisite chaste romantic subplot comes courtesy of a rebellious adolescent Leafman, er, Leafboy (Josh Hutcherson), who likes Mary Katherine but also needs to learn a few lessons about teamwork and community before everything is wrapped up with a neat little bow. Never mind that it’s more than a little weird for a human to be dating someone the size of a praying mantis.

Comic relief is provided by a wisecracking slug (Aziz Ansari) and his snail pal (Chris O'Dowd). The bantering gastropod molluscs are pretty much the funniest things about the movie, which like last year's " Rise of the Guardians " (also based on a Joyce book) has a pervasive dark overtone. Mandrake, a villain who swoops around on a crow while wearing a dead animal hide and shooting acidic goo out of his bazooka-like staff, is scary enough to give a sensitive little kid nightmares. Waltz does a nice job — maybe too nice a job — of conveying pure evil.

The rest of the voice cast is fine, if not quite as distinctive. Jason Sudeikis plays Mary Katherine’s father, a dithering scientist who’s alone in suspecting that the forest is alive with unseen critters. Colin Farrell makes a strong Leafman leader, Ronin, and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler turns in a memorable cameo as a caterpillar, Nim Galuu. Physically, and personality-wise, Nim may remind some older viewers of the caterpillar character from “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” and not only because Tyler sounds like he has been smoking a little something.

The action proceeds predictably, with elements of " The Borrowers ," " FernGully: The Last Rainforest ," " The Ant Bully " and other Tiny Town-themed tales mixed together. It's a little unfortunate that the plot has to turn decay into the bad guy, instead of teaching children that decomposition is part of the cycle of life. Still, if "Epic's" plot is less than wholly original — not to mention more than a little unscientific — the visual design is fairly stunning, underscored by an effective use of 3-D.

It may not be epic, but it’s eye-popping entertainment.

PG. At area theaters. Contains cartoon violence, peril and death. 110 minutes.

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Movie Review: Epic Movie (2007)

• General Disdain
• Movie Reviews
• One response
• --> February 4, 2007

Well, I had hoped that the comedy parody movies had ended with “Scary Movie 2,” as it was the last time I saw a funny movie of this type. But then they went ahead and clubbed me like a baby seal and came out with two more in the franchise and then the unspeakably bad “ Date Movie .” Now we’re blessed with Epic Movie .

This time around we’re supposed to give a shit about four orphaned kids, a black, a mutant, an annoying white chick and an Indian guy, who after winning golden tickets find themselves whisked away on a magical journey which shows them they are really a family. In telling us this story, Epic Movie , pokes fun at:

• The DaVinci Code
• Nacho Libre
• Snakes On A Plane
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• The Chronicles of Narnia
• Harry Potter
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

There are others movie/television parodies throughout, but these are the main ones that the writers were trying their damnedest to make funny. And guess what? They failed miserably.

I can’t recall a movie, especially a comedy, where I didn’t laugh. Not one fucking time. Epic Movie , has done the unthinkable – proven a movie doesn’t even have to come close to it’s expectations to make money! We’ve seen close examples (“ Superman Returns ,” and the aforementioned parody movies, among many others), but never to this extent. This has just proved to me that movie makers are completely out of ideas and they don’t give a shit about the product because they know people will still go to the theaters to see it (it is #1 at box office).

There is one good point to make however. It was a pleasure to see Anna Faris absent from this movie. She has made it her bread and butter to play the dumb-as-shit blonde girl in all the other movies, that had I seen in her in this, I would have punched my dog in the chest repeatedly. Actually, there is another good point too — Carmen Electra is fucking hot.

There really isn’t much else to say about this shitfest. The only thing that comes to mind is, I hope Kal Penn doesn’t get into a rut and keep doing this horrible movies — Seann William Scott is still regretting all the Stifler-type roles he’s done (and probably continues to do). Do yourself a favor and stay away from Epic Movie . It sucks that bad.

Tagged: friends , orphan , parody , student

I'm an old, miserable fart set in his ways. Some of the things that bring a smile to my face are (in no particular order): Teenage back acne, the rain on my face, long walks on the beach and redneck women named Francis. Oh yeah, I like to watch and criticize movies.

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'Movie Review: Epic Movie (2007)' has 1 comment

July 21, 2007 @ 8:06 am just-4-teens

was disapointed with this film, think they tried doing too much, it does have funny bits but overall was disapointing.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Raunchy blockbuster spoof is over the top, dumb.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Some of the personal-growth lessons from Chronicle

Characters are all broad types, including both her

Cast is racially diverse, but that diversity is pl

Bloodless, cartoon-style violence, with characters

Breast and crotch gags in profusion. Many shots of

Many uses of "s--t." "goddamn," and "bitch."

Many specific movies, TV shows, and celebrities ar

Repeated jokes about drinking, with bottles of liq

Parents need to know that plenty of teens will want to see this raunchy parody from the folks behind Date Movie . It frequently relies on sexual references and body functions for punchlines (though the old standby of good, clean, bopped-on-the-head slapstick gets a workout, too). Lots of crotch and breast gags…

Positive Messages

Some of the personal-growth lessons from Chronicles of Narnia are present in an incidental way.

Positive Role Models

Characters are all broad types, including both heroes and villains.

Diverse Representations

Cast is racially diverse, but that diversity is played for humor, since the leads are all secretly brothers and sisters.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Bloodless, cartoon-style violence, with characters dismembered, smashed, pierced with arrows, shot, decapitated, stabbed, eviscerated, and de-tongued, as well as punched and kicked (in the groin, usually), though they rise up again unscathed.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Breast and crotch gags in profusion. Many shots of bikini-clad women, including a takeoff on Mystique from the X-Men movies (a bosomy mutant mainly clad in blue body paint and glued-on scales). She has sex (non-explicitly) with one of the heroes. Other characters shown in bed together (including four at once). Repeated jokes by fantasy figures (fauns and lion-men) about how their fathers "boinked" animals, resulting in their birth. The Witch enchants a victim by showing him her breasts (her back to us). Many double-entendres, suggestive character names, and suggestions of Willy Wonka's perversity.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Many specific movies, TV shows, and celebrities are spoofed.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Repeated jokes about drinking, with bottles of liquor magically replacing the Turkish delight from Chronicles of Narnia . Characters, even the sober and sensible one, get utterly drunk in a pre-battle party.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that plenty of teens will want to see this raunchy parody from the folks behind Date Movie . It frequently relies on sexual references and body functions for punchlines (though the old standby of good, clean, bopped-on-the-head slapstick gets a workout, too). Lots of crotch and breast gags; plenty of innuendo and big, cartoon-style violence. Some language (mostly "s--t" and "Goddamn"). While the main movie being spoofed is The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe , there aren't any jokes based on the religious allegory underlying C.S. Lewis' plot. References to R-rated films like Snakes on a Plane and Borat may pique young viewers' curiosity to see them. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (11)
• Kids say (42)

Based on 11 parent reviews

funny, dumb, for 15+

This is underrated, what's the story.

The story, such that it is, follows four adult "orphans" from a variety of races (the joke is that they're all brothers and sisters, despite their ethnic mix) whose origins rest in plotlines of movies as diverse as Nacho Libre and The Da Vinci Code . The four come into possession of Golden Tickets that allow them tour Willy Wonka 's ( Crispin Glover ) fabulous candy factory. When Wonka tries to make candy out of the overgrown-kid heroes (it's strongly hinted that he has sex-pervert motivations), they hide from him in a wardrobe that turns out to be the portal to the magic land of Gnarnia. There the evil sorceress known as the "White Bitch" (Jennifer Coolidge) tries to catch them to stop the fulfillment of a prophecy that would end her reign. Part of her plans include the woozy pirate Jack Swallows (Darrell Hammond), who, of course, is a takeoff based on a certain Disney pirate-film series . Oh, and there's a homicidal albino monk after them, too.

Is It Any Good?

This film is inane, and not very likable. With a title like EPIC MOVIE, you'd think this feature-length spoof would be taking aim at, well, epic movies, and the clichés of spectacles like Troy or Gladiator . But Epic Movie -- which was made by some of the people involved in Date Movie and the Scary Movie series -- just goofs on a laundry-list of 2005-2006 theatrical releases and TV shows, both epic and non-epic, all pinned to a framework of Disney's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe . The whole thing is like a MADtv sketch that escaped the small screen to the big one. What's the point? Basically, just a state-of-the-art ridicule of the most current film fads and crazes -- kind of like the way the New York stage community has fresh editions of a parody called Forbidden Broadway every season or so. But there's not much insight beneath the crass, rapid-fire gags and celebrity (or celebrity impersonator) cameos.

Kids are an easy-to-please crowd for this style of broad send-up, and some bits might make parents laugh too -- when they're not squirming at the prospect of having to explain a sleazy pun like "Jack Swallows." But much of Epic Movie 's humor relies on the tiresome fallbacks of sex and drinking, with a few incongruous hip-hop dance numbers thrown in for good measure. Even more of the humor relies on having viewing tastes identical to writer-directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer , who do takeoffs on everything from the Saturday Night Live digital short "Lazy Sunday" (which itself was partially a Narnia riff) to MySpace.com . Good luck if you're not hip to the last two or three years of popular culture.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the movie's crazy, all-out style of parody. Does any of it work, and do you think anyone will find any of it funny decades from now, when half of the references will have been forgotten? Compare this film to other spoofs -- like Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein and Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog -- in which the comedians seem to have great understanding and affection for what they're spoofing. Is there any of that here?

Movie Details

• In theaters : January 26, 2007
• On DVD or streaming : May 22, 2007
• Cast : Adam Campbell , Jayma Mays , Kal Penn
• Directors : Aaron Seltzer , Jason Friedberg
• Inclusion Information : Gay actors, Indian/South Asian actors
• Studio : Twentieth Century Fox
• Genre : Comedy
• Run time : 86 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : crude and sexual humor, language and some comic violence.
• Last updated : June 4, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Epic Movie (United States, 2007)

When did this sort of movie stop being funny? Parodies with so-called "saturation humor" used to be reliable - rarely memorable but typically good for 90 minutes of enjoyable, disposable cinema. At some point, however, the jokes lost their zing, and the writing team of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer were right in the middle. These two scripted Scary Movie (along with Shawn and Marlon Wayans), which was amusing, and Date Movie , which was anything but that. Epic Movie (with which these two make their directorial debut) is the third entry in the "trilogy" and it fails to reverse the downward spiral. If you thought it was impossible for a film to contain less effective comedy than Date Movie , here's evidence to the contrary.

Epic Movie is an exercise in regurgitating parts of popular movies with look-alike actors engaged in pratfalls and other embarrassing acts. There are four main characters (to the extent that one can use that word in association with this production). Lucy (Jayma Mays) is introduced during a mirthless spoof of The Da Vinci Code . Edward (Kal Penn) comes via Nacho Libre . Susan (Faune A. Chambers) is menaced by Snakes on a Plane . (The Samuel L. Jackson representative can't even quote the movie's famous line because Epic Movie is PG-13. So "motherfucker" is replaced by "goddamned" so the teenagers of this world can be protected from extreme profanity.) Finally, Peter (Adam Campell) spends time at the X-Men 's mutant school. The four eventually end up in the Land of Gnarnia ("The 'G' is silent, like in 'gnarly'"), but only after a stopover to meet Willy Wonka (Crispin Glover). The bulk of the "story" loosely follows The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with Jennifer Coolidge as The White Bitch and Fred Willard as Aslo. There are tangents to allow appearances by Harry Potter, James Bond, Superman, and Captain Jack. Notably absent, however, are references to The Lord of the Rings .

Bad taste and worse jokes abound. Epic Movie 's humor isn't tired; it's comatose. After a while, the effect of so much failed humor is numbing. Is it funny when Lucy gets her tongue stuck to a cold pole (only to have that tongue separated from her body when she is pulled free)? Or when Mr. Tumnus French-kisses a beaver? Or when Magneto gets hit in the head with a pot? When all else fails, Friedberg and Seltzer resort to the old stand-bys: consumption of raw sewage, urination, farts, spit and drool, and projectile vomiting. To be fair, there are a couple of brief but genuinely clever moments to be found - the proverbial needles in a haystack. When he meets The White Bitch, Kal Penn murmurs, "It's Stifler's mother." (The role played by Jennifer Coolidge in American Pie .) Shortly thereafter, when she commands him to gaze upon her "White Castle," guess what he sees? (He is later referred to as "Kumar" by Tony Cox.) I'm tempted to add to this short list a scene in which Fred Willard's stunt double is obviously not Fred Willard, but that was done to better effect in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka .

The complete and utter failures of both Date Movie and Epic Movie makes one question what happened to Friedberg and Seltzer. Scary Movie used the same formula but was at times side-splittingly funny. One must assume all the good stuff came from the Wayans Brothers, who have not been involved in the subsequent Friedberg/Seltzer projects. (They are no longer involved in the Scary Movie franchise, either.) Epic Movie is a primer in how not to make a spoof. I attended this film with a "real" audience (not critics) and, during most of the movie, the dearth of laughter was eerie.

There's no way to soften the truth: Epic Movie is a waste of time. It's like a bad issue of Cracked Magazine come to life. It's not so much painful as it is sleep inducing. Bad imitations of beloved movie characters can be funny but not the way they are presented here. The movie is so poorly assembled that it feels like a direct-to-DVD product that ended up with a theatrical release because the January schedule is so threadbare. Even if you love every movie that Epic Movie references, this film will not please, divert, or amuse you.

So if you find yourself stuck in a theater seat watching Peter play Sudoku in the snow with his urine or seeing Edward slurping from the "chocolate river," don't say you weren't warned…

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"We waste our money so you don't have to."

"We waste our money, so you don't have to."

Movie Review

US Release Date: 01-26-2007

Directed by: Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer

Starring ▸ ▾

• Kal Penn ,  as
• Adam Campbell ,  as
• Faune A. Chambers ,  as
• Jayma Mays ,  as
• Fred Willard ,  as
• Jennifer Coolidge ,  as
• White Bitch
• Crispin Glover ,  as
• Hector Jimenez ,  as
• Carmen Electra ,  as
• David Carradine ,  as
• Museum Curator
• Kevin McDonald ,  as
• Harry Potter
• Tony Cox ,  as
• Kevin Hart as

Epic Movie is tired and worn out.

Movies making fun of other movies through satire has become a boring gimmick. With minimal creativity, Epic Movie proves just how worn out the genre is.

The plot, if it's even worth calling it that, is about four people who get trapped in Willy Wonka's factory because Willy wants to put their body parts into his candy. Can you guess where Willy gets the nuts for his candy bars? To escape Wonka's taunt of, “Who wants to play with Willy?” The four go through a wardrobe into the land of Gnarnia. You know, with a silent “G” to avoid copyright laws. There, they must do battle with The White Bitch. WOW! These creative writers came up with changing The White Witch's name to White Bitch. I wonder how long it took them to come up with that?

Everything from Pirates of The Carribean to Click to Superman Returns gets skewered, but none very well. The best movie moment comes when they go to Hogwarts and find that Hermione is a pregnant chain smoker.

Kal Penn leads a not very notable cast. Penn's biggest moment comes when the White Bitch points out her castle and it ends up being a White Castle restaurant. Penn then says, “I think I've been there before.” Of course this is a reference to Penn's movie, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle . I can just see the producers hoping and praying that they could get Penn to do this movie just so they could include that joke. Campbell is as boring here as he was in Date Movie . Mays spends the entire film imitating Anna Faris.

The entertainment of Epic Movie is based on two factors. First, it is how well you recognize all of the movies and MTV television shows that get referenced here. The second is how well you think the writers poke fun at those films. Sadly the writers can think of little more than just adding some swear words and sexual innuendoes. Clearly this movie is made for teenagers, and not very bright ones.

Kal Penn, Jayma Mays, Crispin Glover, Faune Chambers and Adam Campbell in 20th Century Fox's Epic Movie

About the only good thing I have to say about Epic Movie is that I liked it a bit more than I liked last year's Date Movie . That is to say that Date Movie was really, really bad, while Epic Movie is just really bad. I'm not sure if Eric isn't being a little too generous when he says this movie is aimed at teenagers. I'm not sure that they weren't aiming for even younger than that.

The problem with even calling this movie a satire is that it rarely bothers to even satirize the movie it references. It seems to think that just referring to a movie is humor enough. Like Eric I found the Harry Potter scene to be one of the movie's best, as it displays real knowledge of its source material by playing with the notion that the kids playing Harry, Ron and Hermione are aging a lot faster than their characters.

I also agree with Eric that Mays is basically trying to channel Anna Faris, but I found her to be funny anyway as she repeats nearly everything Chambers says.

Like Date Movie last year, Epic Movie could have found comic gold in a genre of films that is ripe for mining, but once again it fails to do so. I get the idea that the writers just sat around in a room one night, getting high or drunk and writing down whatever idea happened to hit them at the time. Maybe finding it funny requires that you be in the same state.

Faune Chambers, Adam Campbell, Jayma Mays and Kal Penn in 20th Century Fox's Epic Movie

You mean that wasn’t Anna Faris?

Yes this movie is bad and I understand my brother’s point about them throwing out movie send-ups seemingly at random without adding much beyond the recognition factor for a laugh. But you have to at least give this movie credit for cramming in the most homage’s scene for scene of just about any movie in the spoof comedy genre. And many of them are older movies and some are done in a more subtle fashion than one might expect. Scarface (not subtle), Stand By Me , and A Christmas Story (both subtle) as well as television classics like Gilligan’s Island and The Love Boat are referenced. There are some laughs to be had but I have to agree that this was one lazy team of writers and the results are eminently forgettable.

Photos © Copyright 20th Century Fox (2007)

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Epic Movie review

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Let’s face facts: by the time you read this review, many of you will have already gone out and exposed yourself to this steaming pile of cinema, but we’ll try warning you anyway.

As usual, the formula is predictable and the writers – now directors – of this Date Movie follow up tosh must be in the running for Easiest Hollywood Job Award: watch a lot of recent releases, sprinkle in some fart/rap/gross-out gags and voila, that's enough money earned to keep churning more of these films out.

In Epic Movie’s case, the targets are the likes of Narnia, Pirates Of The Caribbean and Harry Potter. Alternating between easy pop culture jokes and attempts at laughter so old the British Museum is launching an investigation into theft, it struggles to find the right tone. Some jokes blast past while others (such as an MTV Cribs parody) are driven into the ground. Please. Make. It. Stop.

The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine. 

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Movie Review: ‘Epic’

Animated kids movies these days understand that there are at least two distinct demographics that come to each showing: children and their parents. The goal is to fascinate and wow the wee ones while still making the time enjoyable, or better yet, actually entertaining for the adults who will probably be forced to put the movie on a loop once it hits the home market. Unfortunately, Epic doesn’t seem to understand that notion.

Perhaps the writing was on the wall once the title of the movie was announced. I understand changing it from what William Joyce’s book was called The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs , that’s anything but an eye-catching moniker. But if you’re going to call your story “Epic,” and that word doesn’t actually tie into anything specific (no characters say “Epic,” none of them are named “Epic,” and “Epic” doesn’t appear on-screen anywhere other than the title), you’re simply asking for trouble. The only way not to receive criticism from the adults who were bored by your movie is to make the plot … well … epic.

The script is a Frankensteinian assemblage of other better kids’ movies like The Neverending Story , Arthur and the Invisibles , Ferngully: The Last Rainforest , and the The Spiderwick Chronicles . Some of that comparison is unfair as Joyce’s book was written in 1996, prior to two of those properties also seeing their source material gets published. However, if something like John Carter taught the world anything about adapting books into movies, it’s not about when your book hit the store shelves, it’s about when it hit the mainstream cultural zeitgeist.

In Epic , a race of tiny beings keeps the natural order of the forest in check. There are those who want to introduce rot and decay to the land (creepy bugs and bats and whatnot), and then there are the good guys (i.e., snails, pretty birds, and tiny human-like characters … because humans are always the good guys; Yes, that’s an example of me being snarky). The balance of power is put in jeopardy when the good Queen of the forest (Beyoncé Knowles) is defeated by the leader of the evil forces, Mandrake (Christoph Waltz). Circumstances bring a human down to size in the form of Mary Katherine ( Amanda Seyfried ), whose father ( Jason Sudeikis ) has been searching for proof of the existence of a miniature society in the forest for decades. If you don’t know how this is going to end, I recommend finishing primary school.

On the plus side, the animation itself is fine, and kids are going to find most of this fun to watch. Then again, they’ll watch anything as long as there’s a constant stream of flickering images, bright colors, and sound.

On the negative side is everything else. Putting aside the ho-hum, seen it many times over story, the manner in which it unfolds is so bland and unexciting it put a fellow critic to sleep on more than one occasion (and our screening took place at 10:30 in the morning). I might normally be annoyed by such behavior taking place right next to me, but it gave me something to be amused by; the film sure wasn’t doing so on its own.

The voice work is a mix of serviceable (Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson), uninspired (Colin Farrell, Christoph Waltz), and flat-out awful (Beyoncé). Aziz Ansari and Chris O’Dowd attempt to inject life into the proceedings as a slug and snail, respectively, but for some reason, I kept thinking of the two racist Autobots from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen so I can’t really give them points on this effort. If it weren’t for my constant befuddlement at why there was one Irishman (Farrell) and one German (Waltz) amid the entirety of the forest creatures who otherwise were American, I probably would have nodded off myself.

Simply put, parents will likely be forced to endure this movie because their children haven’t developed anything close to a discerning cinematic palette. However, to mitigate the unavoidable chore that this task will end up being, any two-parent system should play a game of rock, paper, scissors (best two out of three, shoot on three). The loser brings the kid(s) to the theater. Or better yet, see if one parent will bring a group of kids and spare even more adults from the proceedings. For their efforts, I recommend a gift card to BevMo! or at least a nice bottle of wine (maybe a Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon .. Get it? Oak? Forest? The plot? It’s also a great bottle of wine … Oh, never mind).

Everyone else not being forced into this theater should stay away and find some other form of entertainment; if not another movie, then maybe something more exciting … like learning to crochet. And no, this is not me being snarky.

Epic opens in theaters on May 24, 2013 and is rated PG for mild action, some scary images and brief rude language.

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Epic Movie (2007)

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, captain underpants: the first epic movie.

And the Oscar goes to ... Nick Kroll as Professor Poopypants.

That's not going to happen, of course. Films as knowingly goofy and childish as "Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie," a DreamWorks feature about two friends who create an unlikely superhero and battle a super-villain to save their school, don't get nominated for Oscars, even for Best Animated Feature. They don't give out little gold men for vocal performances as supporting characters in cartoons, either, because there is no such category. Nevertheless, Kroll, a comedian and actor best known for "The Kroll Show" and "The League," deserves above-and-beyond recognition for his irrepressibly silly voice as the movie's pint-sized, German-accented mad scientist bad guy, who poses as an elementary school science teacher and has flying wings of white hair poking out from his acorn-shaped head and wants to neutralize every living person's sense of humor so that they will never again laugh at his name, Professor Pee-Pee Diarrheastein Poopypants, Esq.

Remember when you were a kid and the funniest of your friends would do a specific silly voice that made you laugh no matter what they said, and once he figured out what an easy mark you were, he'd do the voice all the time, sometimes he did it right before you took a sip of orange juice to make you do a spit take? That's the kind of voice Kroll gives this character: an orange juice spit-take voice. He's a little bit Mel Brooks' The 2000-Year Old Man, a little bit Dr. Scott from " The Rocky Horror Picture Show ," with a touch of Peter Sellers as " Dr. Strangelove ," but there's an inner-directed exasperation to the performance that centers it and sometimes makes Poopypants comic book-deep, like a villain in a good Tim Burton movie. (Remember those?)

Yes, Poopypants is evil, and so fiendish and relentless that best buddies George ( Kevin Hart ) and Harold ( Thomas Middleditch ) and their principal-turned-superhero, Captain Underpants ( Ed Helms ), who was created with a hypnosis ring taken from a cereal box, seem incapable of stopping him and his super-weapon, a walking, growling toilet that spits emerald goo derived from the school's discarded lunchroom food. (The toilet was originally a science fair entry made by the resident power-worshiping nerd, Jordan Peele's Melvin; long story.) But you can also see why Poopypants is in a terrible mood 24/7. The way Kroll savors every syllable of his alternately peevish, self-pitying and nonsensical dialogue—aided mightily by the animators, who've given the character a fireplug body and a waddling walk—transforms the ridiculous into the sublime. The moment where George solemnly tells Poopypants that his problem is that he can't laugh at himself, and Poopypants whines, "Oh, is that really what my problem is, Oprah ?" made me laugh so hard I thought my son was going to ask me to leave.

The rest of the film is nearly as good. It suffers from a rushed, jumbled quality, and it displays a lot of tics that have become tiresome because DreamWorks has been doing them over and over again for 15+ years, ever since they worked in the original " Shrek ": these include frenetic action scenes, up-to-the-minute slang that will be dated six months from now, and the use of workhorse pop songs, including Aretha Franklin's "Respect," to pump up humor and sentiment even though the scene might've played fine without them. (It's like watching a kid put extra sugar on sugary cereal.)

But there's also a lot to like here. I haven't been this pleasantly surprised by a big-budget, little-kid focused animated film since the original "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs." It's straight-up ridiculous from start to finish, from the razor-toothed mini-toilets that creep across the screen at the end to its many throwaway sight gags, like the bit where the boys dig through a drawer where the principal has stashed their confiscated toys and withdraw a squirt rifle twice the size of the drawer. It's at its best when it's cutting loose and delivering slapstick and fantasy sequences of escalating absurdity. When George and Harold are separated by Captain Underpants' humorless alter-ego, Mr. Krupp, they imagine themselves separated by a desolate rocky plain, then a sea of stars, then a galaxy.

Aside from a few earnest, brief paeans to the power of friendship and the necessity of recognizing others' loneliness, there's not much that seems intended to turn kids into better people, and that's a big reason why so many of them are going to like it. The movie reminded me a little bit of my daughter's comment after visiting the various Disney World theme parks at age eight: "My favorite one is Magic Kingdom, because that's the only one where you don't have to learn anything."

Director and co-writer David Soren and screenwriter Nicholas Stoller clearly adore the source material, a series of paperback tall-tales aimed at ten-year old children's giggle-centers. They've preserved Pilkey's exuberant drawing style as well as his understanding of what sort of humor is guaranteed to make young kids laugh until their sides hurt: clever, talkative hustlers getting out of jams they created themselves; snooty or hateful characters getting their comeuppance; anything having to do with poop, toilets, underwear, yucky lunchroom food, and adults falling down and being humiliated and chastising hordes of laughing children for not respecting their dignity; and funny voices. Always funny voices. Orange juice spit-take funny.

Parents and children who have read Pilkey's books together may appreciate the sheer don't-give-a-hoot nerve that the filmmakers have brought to a project that's a thousand kilometers away from being reputable. They've approached this compendium of elemental slapstick and unabashed childishness with the reverence that the Coen brothers brought to " No Country for Old Men ." The 3-D animation is designed and executed in an unrealistic manner, paying loving attention to light and shadow but tossing the laws of physics out of the nearest classroom window. And whenever you start to feel suffocated by the bright color and excess of detail, the film will cut to a sequence in a different style: black-and-white line drawing, mid-century, UPA-style animation, sock puppetry.

There's even a flip book action-scene interlude. As any true "Captain Underpants" fan will tell you, the flip book interludes in Pilkey's books are the best parts. Here, the filmmakers haven't just included one, they've gone to the trouble of reproducing the inevitable moment where the flippers get so excited that they tear the page. This happened to me more than once while reading the books to my son when he was small, years ago. It's not often that a movie puts a spotlight on a mundane ritual in your own life that you never realized was profound and says, "You probably forgot about this, but I want you to remember it and savor it, because it meant something." It happened while watching this ridiculous cartoon. They recaptured it, all of it, down to the ecstatic pause while the parent fetches Scotch tape to repair a torn page. I never expected an adaptation of "Captain Underpants" to deliver a version of the madeleine moment in Marcel Proust's "À la recherche du temps perdu." But here we are.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

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Film credits.

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017)

Rated PG for mild rude humor throughout.

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